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Items: Anthrax: Made in USA / Looming Attack on Iraq / Superpower Subsidy / Royal Rewards / GPF Needs Your Support
Information has come to light about possible sources for the letter-borne anthrax that killed several people recently in Washington and New York. FBI investigators have discovered that US weapons laboratories have manufactured anthrax of a type that might have been used in these attacks. According to a story in the December 13 New York Times, the US Army's Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah claimed that its scientists had developed "small quantities" of weapons-grade anthrax, supposedly as part of tests to defend against germ warfare attacks.
The Times reported that "this is the first disclosure of government production of anthrax in its most lethal form sine the United States renounced biological weapons in 1969 and began destroying its germ arsenal." Evidently, the US has been producing anthrax for some time and at a number of different facilities. According to a scientist who monitors bioweapons control policy, at least 15 government labs have been producing the Ames strain of the virus, the strain used in the deadly letters. At least four US labs, including Dugway, may have produced weapons-grade anthrax.
According to the Times, one bioweapons expert, William C. Patrick, told military officers at Maxwell Air Force Base that he taught the Dugway scientists how to produce weapons-grade anthrax and bragged that they made "about a pound" in "less than a day." "It's a good product," he said, according to a transcript of the meeting. Since even a few grams of weapons grade anthrax can kill hundreds of thousands of people, the work at Dugway appears to be in violation of the 1972 treaty banning biological warfare. Such a large quantity of the lethal substance could hardly be justified as defensive, in the view of many experts.
Members of the US Congress have been circulating the text of a proposed Joint Resolution calling for Iraq to admit UN weapons inspectors immediately or face a US military attack. Weapons inspectors would look for prohibited weapons, like anthrax, for example. Joint Resolutions of Congress are not legally binding, but they have considerable weight in policy making. In this case, the Congressional initiative follows similar statements from President Bush and others in his administration. On Monday, November 26, Bush issued a warning to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein that immediately set off alarms in other capitals. On the November 28, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said in the Bundestag that "we should be very careful about discussing new targets in the Middle East." "More could blow up around our ears than any of us are able to deal with," he said, according to an Associated Press wire story. On the same day, Egyptian Foreign Minister, Ahmed Maher, made a strong statement opposing a US strike against Iraq. Jordan and the Arab League made similar statements, according to AP.
But diplomatic sources at the United Nations have told GPF that the United States has been "consulting with capitals" for the past two weeks about military action to overthrow the government of Saddam Hussein. Such consultations mean that the United States is giving the issue high priority and is arm-twisting other governments to give backing or at least tacit approval to the plan.
Diplomats and journalists at the UN remember a visit last summer by Scott Ritter, a former UN weapons inspector in Iraq, who claimed that the United States used the UN Special Commission (UNSCOM) to spy on the Iraqi government and to provide political cover for a US bombing campaign. Ritter made these allegations in a detailed TV documentary, "In Shifting Sands," which a fascinated UN audience previewed in July.
The current US consultations suggest that the Bush administration has completed its internal "debate" on Iraq policy and that the hawkish elements around Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld have prevailed over the more cautious group around Secretary of State Colin Powell. Further, signs from UN delegations suggest that the US has made progress in winning agreement from key allies beyond the ever-faithful UK. A high-ranking diplomat from a major European country recently affirmed that if Iraq fails to re-admit weapons inspectors, a US strike would be "justified." Such talk suggests that the Europeans are falling into line and will offer little resistance to a US attack.
On Sunday, December 10, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan publicly urged the United States not to take action against Iraq. Speaking in Oslo, where he had come to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, he said that "Any attempt or any decision to attack Iraq today will be unwise in that it can lead to a major escalation in the region," as quoted by the BBC. But BBC correspondent Nick Bryant in Washington reported that the US government is "ignoring what Kofi Annan says altogether."
Senator Jesse Helms and his colleagues in the US Congress like to complain about poor country "deadbeats" that live like beggars off the largesse of generous rich countries. The reality is very different and the subsidy of the poor to the rich has been getting larger in recent years. Take for example capital flows. According to the latest IMF data (as reported by the International Herald Tribune on December 12), 2001 will be the second year in a row when there has been a "net outflow of capital from the developing countries to support consumption in the West." Overall, poor countries are expected to send $20 billion to their rich cousins in 2001, while in 2000 they sent no less than $60 billion. Data from the IMF and the Bank for International Settlements suggests that the sum in 2002 may surpass even 2000, reaching a record level.
The United States, by virtue of its superpower status, collects an especially large tribute, which comes from rich and poor alike. In 2001, the US will run a current account trade deficit of about $400 billion, a sum balanced by a very high level of inward investment flows. This means that the US imports far more goods than it exports, living at a level of consumption sustained by generous foreign investors. As of December 7, the net US foreign debt stood at $2.6 trillion - a per capita level almost three times as high as debt-wracked Argentina. Any other country in such a condition would suffer a currency collapse, an IMF intervention or some other painful adjustment. But the US's superpower subsidy allows it to float along on "confidence" like the dot coms of the 1990s, oblivious (for the moment at least) to financial laws of gravity.
The huge US foreign debt, which includes foreign investments in US Treasury securities, makes the US economy very vulnerable to a sell-off of dollars, a dumping of US investments, or both.. Such a retreat from past practice might follow from a loss of faith in the US economy. After September 11, responding to a danger of this kind, the US Federal Reserve created tens of billions of additional liquidity to pump up the economy and keep foreign investors from getting the jitters. Interest rate reductions and the government's muscular military campaign helped keep the dollar strong, even as the current account registered another $100 billion trade deficit for the third quarter.
In an increasingly unequal world, formerly exiled European royalty are getting on the bandwagon of upward re-distribution. Last summer, the Serb parliament returned the ancestral Old Palace and White Palace in Belgrade to Crown Prince Alexander and Princess Katherine Karadjordjevic of Yugoslavia. Alexander is an oil executive who became a citizen of his own country in March, 2001, 55 years after he was born in a Claridge's Hotel suite in London. Alexander may eventually be restored to the throne, like King Juan Carlos of Spain.
King Simeon Saxe-Coburg II of Bulgaria ruled as a child until he was deposed in 1946. This past summer he was named as Bulgaria's new prime minister. He will get back the family's 90-acre Vrana Hunting Lodge and expects further returns of royal properties.
Prince Victor Emmanuel of Savoy, exiled heir to the Italian throne, will probably be returning to Italy soon where the new Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi is said to be ready to offer a warm welcome.
King Michael and Queen Anne of Romania have been promised a hefty salary and some family properties including the Elizabeth Palace, the Savarsin Castle and some other villas, while estates belonging to King Constantine of Greece are soon to be restored to their royal owner.
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